NorCal woman breaks Guinness World Record with heaviest triplets

A Northern California mom gave birth to triplets that weighed a combined record-breaking 20 pounds. Someone please get this woman a prize, a drink, an extra set of hands?

“Twenty pounds is no joke,” points out CBS Sacramento. “That’s the same weight as two big bags of potatoes, or 36 onions, or 40 loaves of bread, or four gallons of milk.”

Brittany Deen delivered three babies by c-section at Sacramento’s Sutter Memorial Hospital on November 8. While triplets are usually born early at about 32 weeks, Deen made it to 37, giving the infants plenty of time to grow. The average length of pregnancy is 38 weeks.

“We were excited. We were scared out of our minds,” Deen told CBS.

Sidney came in at an impressive 7.8 pounds; Elliott weighed a healthy 7.2 pounds; and Jenson was the smallest at 5.5 pounds. “Together they made for a Guinness World Record setting 20 pound child birth,” CBS Sacramento reported. (Keep in mind that the average triplet weighs about four pounds.)

Until the Deen clan came along, the heaviest set of living triplets on record were reportedly born last summer. Kate, Ethan and Owen Sullivan of North Carolina weighed in at 18 pounds 11.48 ounces, according to the News Observer. A Canadian family held the record before the Sullivan trio.

Eating 6,000 calories a day, Deen gained 80 pounds during pregnancy. She lost 50 immediately after birth. Most moms delivering one child are 12 pounds lighter after birth, according to BabyCenter.

While multiple births are often the result of infertility treatments such as IVF, Deen’s pregnancy was completely natural. This is rare—triplets occur naturally in about 1 in every 7921 pregnancies.

Sidney is unable to eat on his own and in the NICU. The parents are looking forward to him getting strong enough to come home.